Health & Safety
Over the last three years the occurrence rate of industrial injuries at
Severstal has reduced more than twofold.
In 2010, we embarked on a large long-term project named Labour Safety, aimed
at steadily reducing the occurrence rate of industrial injuries.
The project calls for the implementation of an efficient labour safety
system to make it possible to change the culture of industrial safety, from
that of management supervision, to personal commitment from all employees.
In 2010, we launched the project at Cherepovets Steel Mill, and by mid-2012
it should be implemented in the whole Russian Steel Division.
The idea of the Labour Safety project is that we change the culture of
industrial safety by implementing consecutively three major principles:
providing safe labour conditions, getting employees involved in safety
policies, and teaching safe behaviour. Each of these includes special tools or
detailed procedures, such as:
- evaluating the risk of missions
- troubleshooting and low cost operations procedure
- setting labour safety goals for all management levels, and motivation
- a system for identifying and adjusting hazardous conditions by auditing
industrial operations safety, and also through a behavioural safety audit
- an updated system for investigating accidents and micro trauma
- an updated system for training and mentoring programmes (allowing work to
be done independently)
- a communications programme promoting safe behaviour;
- a labour safety roles and responsibilities matrix
- an updated system for dealing with those who fail to observe labour safety
rules.
We envisaged that all managers will be trained and individually coached in
these procedures, and will use them in their everyday operations.
The project also provides for a number of investment programmes: higher
standards of sanitary amenities for employees, purchase of modern and quality
personal protective equipment, repairs to, and construction of, pathways in the
plant compound, installation of safety signs, etc. These will be implemented
everywhere.
